All Eyes Elsewhere
by OliveH
Summary: Students are disappearing, and the Hogwarts founders suspect one of their own--but not the right one.
1. 1

Disclaimer: The characters and setting in this story are not mine; the story and interpretation are. Thank you to J.K. Rowling, for creating such a wonderful world and letting us play in it.

**All Eyes Elsewhere**  
By Olive Hornby

"These disappearances must stop at once!" Gryffindor said, slamming his fist on the table. 

Helga watched through hooded eyes as Ravenclaw winced and Slytherin sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yes, I believe we are all in agreement on that, Godric. The question is how can we stop them? We do not know nearly enough about what is happening to make any sort of intelligent decisions." 

"We know that all of the missing children were last seen near the edges of the forest..." Gryffindor began. 

"The forest surrounds this entire castle," Slytherin said irritably. "By saying they were at the edge of the forest you only mean that they were outside." 

"We should restrict them to the indoors until we find out what is causing this," Ravenclaw said, looking to Helga for affirmation. 

Helga nodded dutifully. 

"Of course, of course, the woman's way is to hide," Gryffindor said condescendingly, and Helga could feel Ravenclaw bristling next to her. "But-" 

"Woman or not," Ravenclaw snapped, "I don't see you coming up with anything better. Unless you _want_ more children to disappear." 

"How dare you-" 

"It's not as if people disappearing from this castle because of your lack of judgment would be anything new!" Ravenclaw continued vehemently. "If I learn of one more poor serving girl sent away with child..." 

Slytherin snickered, and Gryffindor looked a bit abashed. Helga merely raised her eyebrows. 

"I scarcely think that that is any of your concern," Gryffindor hastened to say. 

"There are spells to prevent that very thing, you know. You are a _teacher_, are you not? Could you not teach your steady stream of mistresses how to keep themselves out of such delicate positions?" Ravenclaw persisted. 

"But I... dammit, woman! My personal affairs are not your concern!" 

"Your personal affairs will tarnish the reputation of this school! Your continued indiscretion is disgraceful!" Ravenclaw snapped. 

"Besides which, they never come to me, they always go crying to Helga," Gryffindor complained. Slytherin cast an inscrutable look at her, and she met his gaze with wide, innocent eyes. 

"Of course they go to Helga," Ravenclaw scoffed, placing on hand on Helga's shoulder. "Anyone would prefer a sympathetic listener to a boor like you." 

"You've no right to question me," Gryffindor said, pulling himself upright. "Your female nosiness notwithstanding..." 

"We have strayed from the topic at hand," Slytherin interjected smoothly. He tented his fingers in front of him and leaned his elbows on the table. "I agree with Rowena's suggestion that we keep the students inside for the time being. We cannot allow more students to disappear. Sooner or later one of the more affluent children will vanish and we could face serious repercussions." 

"Ah, of course," Gryffindor said sarcastically. "Only the wealthy students are important. What astonishing coincidence that the wealthiest students are the purebloods. Like yourself. Since the only ones who have disappeared are the poorer ones of mixed blood, it is of little matter." 

"That is not what I meant," Slytherin said evenly. "It is a simple matter of pragmatism. Angry rich parents threaten us, angry poor parents do not." 

"You've expressed your desire for this school to accept only children with wizard parents before," Gryffindor persisted. "Children who, incidentally, are usually wealthier because of their parents' abilities. If I did not know any better, I would have to conclude that you are advocating social elitism." 

"There are numerous advantages to restricting admission to pureblood children," Slytherin stated evenly. "Not only would it reduce the likelihood of our exposure and possible action against us by uninformed Muggles, it would also keep Muggleborn wizards safer from their own families by not forcing them to lie about their entire education. There is little in our current curriculum to prepare them for returning to a Muggle life, and we do not have enough teachers to spread ourselves any further. And of course, the matter of money is not unimportant, either. Wealthier families can pay for their children's tuition, which, considering the cost behind building and maintaining this school, is quite significant." 

"Have you not considered the damage that Muggleborn children could do if left untrained? Pureblood children are not the only ones who cast accidental magic. They could threaten themselves and everyone around them, and the Muggles around them would likely think them possessed or some other such nonsense, and could harm or kill them," Gryffindor said. 

"That is true," Slytherin conceded. "However, we must protect our own interests first. It is difficult to protect others if we cannot protect ourselves." 

"We had agreed that there would be no tuition costs for the time being. I was under the impression that between your money and Rowena's inheritance we had more than enough to sustain the school for another few decades." 

"We do," Slytherin said, "but it will run out eventually. If we are to see the long-term survival of this school, we must devise a long-term financial solution, and it would be grossly unfair to only charge some students to attend, but not to charge others." 

"Of course that's easy for you to say," Gryffindor spat. "You and your expensive, tailored robes. Never done an honest day's work in your life, have you, Salazar?" 

Slytherin sighed. 

Helga fought back a smile. 

"We are off the topic again," Slytherin reminded Gryffindor. 

"Perhaps we should only allow the poor children outside," Gryffindor snapped. "We could use them as bait to lure out whatever beast has spirited off the others." 

"Come now, Godric," Slytherin. "No one is suggesting such a thing-" 

"Begging your pardon, _Lord_ Slytherin," Gryffindor drawled. "We lowly vassals must be too simpleminded to comprehend your large words." 

"Gentlemen, please..." Ravenclaw interjected. 

"I am no gentleman, fair lady," Gryffindor said. "That title belongs to the _wealthy_," he spat the word, "like our friend Slytherin here." 

"Helga," Ravenclaw pleaded. "What is your take on the matter?" 

"Restrict the students to the indoors," Helga said softly, parroting Ravenclaw's own words. "We will have to observe activity in the forest. Whatever beast is causing these disappearances will doubtless show itself in time." 

Something might show itself, but not necessarily what was taking the children. Of course, Helga knew that it was no beast spiriting them away. 

Ravenclaw sighed. "It's settled then," she said. 

"Fine," Gryffindor snarled, casting suspicious glances between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. "But there are other issues..." 

"Some issues can never be resolved, Godric," Slytherin said calmly. 

"Your appalling personality deficiencies, for example," Ravenclaw said to Gryffindor. His eyes flashed and he rose to his feet. 

"That is quite enough," Slytherin said. 

"I am not one of your servants to order about," Gryffindor snapped. 

"I am _aware_ of that, Godric," Slytherin said, his voice sounding more strained that before. "I simply mean to say that there is no need for this divisiveness amongst ourselves..." 

"_No need for divisiveness_, says the man who sneaks off on his own to work on Merlin-knows-what," Gryffindor mocked. "Just what is this secret undertaking of yours? Might it have anything to do with our disappearing students perchance?" 

Slytherin looked shocked. "How dare you imply-" 

Helga rose to her feet. "Rowena, Godric, Salazar," she said softly, nodding to each one in turn. "It's been a long day. I believe I shall retire. Good night." 

She shuffled out of the room with her head bowed, but as soon as she was out of sight of the others, she straightened her back and increased her stride. She ignored the continued sounds of her fellow Hogwarts founders' arguing. Their petty quabbles served to distract them from her. 

She found it quite amusing indeed that Gryffindor noticed Slytherin's many absences, but never her own. 

She was beneath his notice-beneath all of their notice. It didn't bother her though, as it often bothered Ravenclaw that she frequently given less consideration than the men. 

Helga preferred not to be noticed. 

She went into her rooms only long enough to grab her cloak, then quickly made her way to one of the castle's least-used doors. 

She crept out of the castle with her cloak wrapped tightly around her. Even under the light of the full moon, the mottled green of the fabric would mask her presence from any curious eyes. 

The forest around the castle was filled with many deadly creatures, and though Godric and Rowena habitually cautioned the students against entering it, some of the more adventurous ones disregarded their warnings. Three hadn't come back, and even Salazar was becoming concerned, though as usual, he and Godric could not agree on an appropriate course of action. The discussion they'd just had was not a new one. 

Helga merely painted a worried expression on her face and nodded at whatever Rowena said on the subject. Rowena seemed to be under the impression that she and Helga had to present a united front as witches, lest their opinions be disregarded by Godric, Salazar, and the other few wizards they had invited to teach at the newly created school. Helga simply went along with it, presenting herself as passive and deferential. 

She showed them exactly what they expected to see, and they accepted it readily. 

Of course, Helga was utterly unconcerned with what any of them thought, as long as they left her alone. Let them bicker. The longer they remained focused on each other, the less likely they were to realize what was really happening. 

She made her way swiftly through the trees. It was only a few minutes' walk into the forest, but even as close as it was she had no wish to dawdle. She heard a distant howl and quickened her pace. She had little doubt of her ability to handle most of the inhabitants of the forest; she simply didn't wish to be bothered. 

She reached a small clearing and tapped her wand against one of the trees lining the clearing and muttered a short incantation. In an instant, a moderate sized cottage appeared. She was confident that no one would ever find the cottage-it was only visible and tangible upon the recitation of a specific phrase of her own devising, and she'd certainly given no one any reason to suspect her. 

She entered the cottage and was immediately greeted by the smell of blood, urine, and feces, and the sound of a sobbing infant. She held her wand up and walked toward the far corner of the one-room building. "Lumos," she said. 

In the eerie blue light she could make out three-no, four human forms. She smiled. 

"I see you've had your baby at last, Marie," she said. She quickly lit the torches that lined the walls and looked again. Marie, a former castle servant, huddled on one side of the barred-off corner, a naked, screaming infant in her arms. Two younger boys-neither older than fourteen-cowered on the other side of the bars, regarding both Marie and Helga with trepidation. A thin layer of straw covered the floor inside the cage, and a roll of parchments with a quill sticking out one end and a bottle of ink lay outside the cage, just out of reach of the captives. 

Marie let out a choked sob, but said nothing. Helga looked down to the two large empty bowls in the corner of the cage closest to her. 

"I wasn't able to come this past week with all the confusion over the missing students," Helga said, almost apologetically. She waved her wand, and one bowl filled with water while the other filled with chunks of bread. "There. You must be hungry." 

She watched for a moment as both servant and students converged on the two bowls, then she turned toward the room's innocuous centerpiece. 

There were no inside walls or furniture in the cottage. Only the caged-off corner served as a barrier, and the only other item stood in the center: a simple stone archway. A thin veil hung from the top of the archway. Helga stood in front of the veil for a moment, tapping her wand thoughtfully against her chin. 

"When was your baby born, Marie?" Helga asked. 

"Only t-two days ago, m-my lady," Marie said. "He is still weak..." 

"Two days? That should do," Helga said briskly. 

She levitated the archway and repositioned it so that it stood directly in front of the cage door, then pointed her wand at the crying infant. "Accio incorporatus," she said. 

Marie gasped and tried to hold the child closer, but her arms went straight through him. The child floated away from Marie, and Helga used her wand to direct the child's path away from the archway directly through the bars. Marie threw her body against her prison, screaming incoherently, as Helga reached out and gathered the child, who was once again corporeal, into her arms. She kicked a pile of parchments and an ink bottle through the bottom of the bars and the older boy gathered them quickly. 

"Lady Helga, please! Please let him be!" Marie sobbed. 

The two boys edged even further away from Marie, his wide eyes traveling uncertainly between Marie and the archway. 

"Marie, if you do not calm yourself I shall be forced to restrain you," Helga said. 

Marie staggered to the wall and collapsed against it, wrapping her arms around her knees and whimpering softly. Helga nodded. 

"Very good, Marie," Helga said soothingly. "Now, would you like to come out here with your baby? I am certain that you would like to stretch a bit after giving birth in such close quarters." 

Marie stopped sniffling and looked up hopefully. She nodded. 

Helga waved her wand at the lock and the cage door popped open. Marie hesitantly stepped out, slowly walking toward the open door. 

Helga held the baby out in front of her, just behind the two columns of the archway. Marie froze, and turned to look back at the older boy. 

The older boy was trembling all over, his eyes fixed on Marie. 

"M-my lady?" Marie said. 

"Just step through here, Marie. You're only a few steps from your baby," Helga said. 

"W-why?" Marie looked back again, but the boy's eyes were now cast downward. He still trembled. 

"Why what, Marie?" Helga said, careful not to raise her voice. Frightening the servant would make this more difficult, and she had no wish to use force if unnecessary. "You do want to have your baby back, don't you?" 

Marie chewed her lip and took a step backwards. Helga sighed. 

"Very well," she said. "I shall begin the next phase of this experiment then. I've no need of you; I merely thought your presence would calm the baby." 

She conjured a small table and laid the baby on it. The baby was still crying, and he squirmed restlessly on the hard surface. Only a torn shred of Marie's dress covered him, and it was clearly filthy. Helga was unconcerned with the child's comfort, though. 

"After reviewing my previous work, I believe I have found what I need to continue," Helga said. Her voice took on a more stern quality now that she was no longer trying to cajole the servant into voluntarily doing what she wanted. She drew a short silver dagger and a glass vial from the folds of her robes and watched as Marie's eyes widened in alarm. "The only thing I need is the blood of a new child, which you have so generously given me." 

"No!" Marie screamed. She made a wild leap through the open cage door toward Helga and the baby. 

The veil fluttered, and Marie was gone. 


	2. 2

**All Eyes Elsewhere**  
by Olive Hornby

Chapter 2

"Mark the date," Helga ordered the older boy. He immediately scrunched over the scrolls to comply, and she turned back to the baby. 

She was unconcerned about turning her back on the boys, even with the cage door open. 

The younger boy was merely a spare at this point. She had intended to send him through the veil as well, but Marie had borne her child sooner than Helga had expected. Her original intent of putting four people through the archway at different times had to be reduced to three, since with each hour the blood of a new child lost a great deal of its potency. If the younger boy tried to escape, it didn't matter. 

The older boy had been here longer than anyone, and he knew better--he knew quite well that to step through the archway was to completely disappear from the natural world. Gryffindor had pointed him out as a clever student with a fine hand, and that had been exactly what Helga had needed for her initial work. She didn't even remember his name anymore, and since she'd removed his tongue in part to keep him from warning fellow captives about the archway and in part as punishment for the disrespectful, belligerent tone he had taken with her at first, he couldn't tell her. She idly thought that he could write it down, but she didn't care enough to know. It was not important. She kept him only because she didn't want to trouble herself with taking notes. That would take valuable time away from her primary focus. 

Creating the archway and setting up the enchantments to make it serve as a portal had been the easy part. The spell to create the portal was very old magic. She'd seen it used several times with different variations, usually as a means of banishing particularly dangerous criminals. 

Her old village had harbored an abundance of those. 

People forced through such a portal were never seen again, but Helga felt certain that nothing could simply cease to exist. Living things died, nonliving things could be destroyed, but something was always left behind, somewhere. The dead decayed to earth, iron turned to rust, and burnt wood turned to ash. Matter did not vanish, it simply changed. All of the portals had to lead _somewhere_; perhaps they didn't all lead to the same place, but they had to go somewhere. 

Attaching the portal spell to the archway had been moderately challenging, but by experimenting with combinations of adhesion charms and permanence spells she was almost certain that she had created the only permanent portal in the world. 

Now she wanted to know what happened to people who passed through the portal. 

She swiftly drew the dagger down the length of the baby's arm. The baby's soft cries became earnest screams, and she muttered a silencing charm over him--his mouth moved and he continued to squirm, but there was no sound. She held the glass vial up to the cut and once it was full, she spelled the wound shut. She might need more, and obtaining another new child would be more difficult than reusing the one she already had. 

Quickly cutting a swatch of fabric from the baby's thin makeshift blanket, she levitated the table with the squirming yet silent infant off to the side, and then knelt before the archway. She drew from her pocket a lock of blond hair held together with twine and a dead rat. She placed the two items and the swatch of fabric in a neat row on archway step. 

The hair had belonged to the first person she sent through the portal, a stammering first year student from a Helga's own village of God's Hope. She was fairly confident that he had not recognized her as the same witch who was banished from God's Hope nearly twenty years earlier--he had not even been born then--but she knew that if he went home and mentioned her to his family or fellow villagers, they would almost certainly recognize the name. 

The dead rat was the late pet of the second person sent through the portal. The girl had been one of the older students, and she had taken Helga aside one day, concerned about having seen her running into the forest at night. Helga had made certain that the girl, a poor and unattractive loner, had told no one of what she had seen, and had lured her into the forest under the pretense of wanting to assuage the girl's fears. 

She had a small seashell on a length of twine that the younger boy used as a necklace, but she left that in her pocket. Since Marie had gone through the archway instead of the boy, she would need only the fabric scrap. 

Helga dipped her right forefinger into the vial of blood. 

She drew circles of blood around each item, then dipped her finger in the vial again. She drew a line from the edge of each circle and extended them away from the archway. Positioning her left hand on the edge of the archway step with her palm facing upward, she trailed the line of blood smoothly from the archway to her palm and up her arm. 

Her own blood had not worked at all for the spell she had devised, but when she used the blood from the younger boy, she had felt a change occurring--a coldness that gripped her, an intense fear and sorrow that she'd thought she'd driven away, and the veil had fluttered, but nothing had emerged. From this information, she hypothesized that she needed blood with a greater life-force; the greatest life-force in humans was found in a new child. She wasn't sure what it meant for those sent through a portal, but she did know that the blood of new children was an essential component of many necromancy rites. 

She bowed her head. 

The younger boy took the opportunity of her inattention toward him. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a quick flutter of dark cloth, and the boy darted through the archway, doubtless with the intent of escaping. 

He vanished, leaving only the older boy shivering in the corner. 

She did not pause to instruct the older boy; she scarcely even made note of it. It was unimportant. The task ahead of her required her full concentration, and she hastily added the boy's necklace to the assortment of items before her, carefully dividing her attention so that her concentration was unbroken. 

She began her long Latin incantation, a potent blend of powerful summoning spells, portal creating and dispelling curses, life-force anchoring spells that drew partly from her own magical energy and mostly from the magical energy of the infant's blood, and the reanimation spell that had, in part, resulted in her expulsion from her home village so many years ago. As the words flowed from her lips, she grasped her wand in her right hand and drew the tip along the trail of blood from the fabric scrap up her arm. 

A tingle of magic flowed through her arm to quickly encompass her whole body, and her incantation abruptly ceased as an overwhelming coldness washed over her. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears with such force she felt her skull would shatter. Her body trembled fiercely, but she could not fight it, could not even look up--she could only see with her downcast eyes that she had dropped her wand, though she had neither felt nor heard it. She heard a woman screaming, and distantly realized that it was herself. 

The world went pitch black, and she collapsed face first. Her forehead struck the archway step, but she remained conscious, horribly aware of the sickening sensation of her magical energy rapidly draining away and powerless to do anything. Fear and panic unlike anything she had ever felt rose up in her, but this time she couldn't muster enough wit to scream. 

Suddenly the unseen force that had gripped her stopped. She stopped trembling and her head quit pounding, but the terrible cold and fear remained. She looked up. 

Marie was back in the cage. 

Helga blinked, and squinted to focus on the servant. Marie's mouth opened and closed, her eyes wide with horror, but she made no noise, though Helga could hear rattly breathing coming from somewhere. 

"Marie?" Helga said. 

A horrible, bloodcurdling scream erupted from the seemingly placid woman, and Helga flinched in spite of herself. Marie closed her eyes, covered her ears, and curled into a ball on her side, rolling on the filthy straw as she howled incoherently. 

"Marie!" Helga rasped, her voice hoarse from her own screams. "Tell me what you saw!" 

Then Helga saw that Marie was not alone. 

The younger boy was there also, but he didn't move at all. He lay slumped against the wall, his head lolling to one side and his jaw hanging slack. His eyes stared vacantly outward, unfocussed and glassy. A slight movement to the left of the boy drew Helga's eyes over, then up. 

A pair of pale, skeletal feet hovered above the floor. 

Helga drew her eyes upward along the ghastly form. The withered legs disappeared into folds of tattered black fabric, and she abruptly realized that the abused garment was one of the black uniform robes that Slytherin had insisted that Hogwarts students wear. The hood of the robe was up, but Helga could barely make out the face that was nearly hidden beneath it. 

It was the female student she'd sent through the archway three weeks earlier. The girl's once round, youthful face was now gaunt and sickly. Her grayish-white skin hung from her bones, and her eyes... 

Helga staggered to her feet, supporting herself on the bars of the cage. 

The girl's eyes were gone. A thin layer of ghastly skin covered the sunken sockets. The girl's nose was similarly transformed, reduced to a sunken hollow, and her lips had thinned to almost nothing. Her breath rattled softly, but Helga could hear a louder rattling breath and looked deeper into the cage. 

Almost hidden in the shadows of the corner of the cage, another form bent over the older boy. 

The boy was flailing wildly, trying to ward off the ghastly creature, but to no avail. Helga hurried closer, pressing against the bars to see the creature grasp the boy's face between its oddly distended pale hands. The boy could not articulate any words since Helga had removed his tongue, and could only produce sharp muffled moans as the creature dragged his face upwards. His mouth opened in a mute scream, and the creature swiftly brought its head down to cover the boy's mouth with its own in a grotesque parody of a kiss. 

The boy's body went taught and his eyes widened more than Helga would have imagined possible. The creature's loud, uneven breathing became a single, impossibly extended, smooth inhalation. 

The creature drew back slightly, and Helga could see bright blue light streaming out of the boy's mouth, presumably into the creature's mouth, which was hidden beneath its tattered Hogwarts hood. 

Helga blinked, then glanced at the creature's hand, which was still locked over the boy's face. A long, faded pink scar marred the gray skin from the creature's fingertip to the back of its hand. 

Just like the scar that the boy from her village, whom she'd sent through the archway six weeks ago, had on his hand. 

The light from the boy's mouth began to dim, and his eyes and body slowly relaxed. A thin trickle of blood trailed out of the boy's nose, and he twitched slightly as the creature lowered him almost gently back to the floor. 

The creature's rattly breathing resumed as it turned to the next closest person. It glided above the floor to where Helga stood and wrapped its fingers around hers on the bars. 

The intense cold fear and panic welled up again in the creature's proximity, and Helga fought the darkness that threatened to overwhelm her. She heard the voices of her fellow villagers inside her head, jeering and mocking her as she was dragged out of the village in heavy shackles. She heard screams of terror and moans of pain, and felt to her horror all of the defenses she'd built up over her lifetime sliding away, and her childhood sense of fear and helplessness rose up within her, drowning her in emotion. She groaned and sank to her knees, and the creature held one of her hands tightly against the bars and reached through with its other hand to grip the back of her head. 

Through the haze of fear and pain, Helga distantly heard the door hinge creaking. 

The sound pulled her out of the overwhelming flood of emotion long enough for her to jerk backwards, tearing herself out of the creature's grip. She staggered backwards and the creature reached out for her, but was unable to pass the bars. With what little presence of mind she retained, she snatched her wand off the floor. 

"Helga?" an incredulous voice said. She turned to the door. 

Slytherin stood in the open doorway, pointing his wand at the creature that, only moments before, had stood over her. She scrabbled wildly to stand, and when she finally got to her feet and faced the man, his wand was pointed squarely at her chest. 

"What have you done?" he hissed. 


	3. 3

** All Eyes Elsewhere**  
by Olive Hornby

Chapter 3 

She reached one hand toward him beseechingly, her mind racing. "Salazar! Our worst fears have been realized! I happened upon..." 

"Happened upon?" Slytherin demanded. He looked back at the filthy cage to where two students now lay comatose, two were either transformed or partially transformed into ghastly otherworldly creatures, and the servant girl Marie was curled in a tight ball, no longer screaming, but whimpering softly. Helga glanced over to see the partially transformed girl leaning over Marie. 

"Rachel!" Slytherin shouted. 

Helga dimly recognized the girl's forgotten name as she took the opportunity of Slytherin's distraction to aim her wand at him. Slytherin, his attention on his creature in the cage, did not immediately notice. 

"Expelliarmus," Helga said almost lazily. His wand flew out of his hand and he jerked in surprise as his wand clattered to the floor. 

To her dismay, Slytherin did not even attempt to retrieve his wand; he only spared her the briefest of glances before he immediately dodged back out the door. She cursed under her breath and grabbed Slytherin's wand off the floor, hastily shoving it in her pocket, then followed him outside. 

Stepping outside the cottage felt like stepping into another world. The sounds of the creatures' horrible breathing and Marie's whimpers grew fainter behind her, replaced with the natural sounds of the forest. 

Helga kept her back to the cottage wall as she cautiously edged around the cottage, peering out into the darkness for any glimpse of Slytherin. Twigs and dead leaves crunched softly under her feet, and she paused occasionally to listen for footsteps. All she could hear was the loud drone of crickets and soft rustles through the dry autumn underbrush that were both too gentle and too steady to belong to a human. 

A slight movement caught her eye and she looked at the ground. Something, insects perhaps, wriggled through the leaves on the ground. She scowled and turned her attention back to the trees, straining to see in the moonlight. 

The crack of a snapping twig in the trees ahead of her broke the eerie quiet, and she pointed her wand ahead of her and slowly crept toward the source of the sound. 

Something cold brushed against her ankle and she kicked it away, then looked down as she felt something else slide against her foot. 

All around her, the leaves on the ground moved as though something was writhing beneath them. She stepped backwards in alarm, but nearly tripped over something solid that she was sure hadn't been there before. She pointed her wand toward the ground, but since the leaves were being disturbed all around her, she didn't know where to aim her wand. It was only then that she heard a soft, sibilant voice coming from where she had heard the twig snap. 

"Show yourself, Slytherin!" she demanded, all of her feigned womanly deference gone as she pointed her wand into the trees. 

Something cold and solid moved over her foot and up to wrap around her leg, and she looked back down. 

At least two dozen snakes had reared up out of the dead leaves around her feet, and most of them were slithering closer to her. She felt another one wrap around her other leg, and several began to hiss at her from the ground while others moved over her feet or began to wind their way up her legs with the first two. 

She let out a fierce bellow of rage and reached down to pluck the snakes off of her legs, fumbling with her dress hem before grabbing one and flinging it away. As she had her arm down, one of the snakes on the ground quickly wound around her wrist, and she yanked back up fiercely and nearly overbalanced. 

She cursed herself for having forgotten Slytherin's unusual talent of Parseltongue, which he was clearly quite capable of using to his advantage even without his wand. She knew better than to let any possible advantage, no matter how seemingly slight, slip her mind. She pointed her wand down into the snakes at her feet. 

Several more had wrapped around her calves and ankles by the time she got the first killing curse off. 

More of the serpents slithered to her, the one she killed quickly disappearing beneath the others as they made their way up her body, sliding through her clothing and hugging her skin as she flailed wildly. She'd fired off a half dozen more killing curses before one of the snakes wound around her neck. She reached up to pull it away, but it reared its head back and hissed, opening its mouth wide to display its fangs. With what little breath she had left she let out a muffled cry and instinctively tried to jerk away from the snake, but this time with the weight of at least a dozen snakes, she overbalanced and fell backwards. 

Almost immediately the snakes surged over her, and she would have howled in disgust at the loathsome feel of cold, heavy reptilian bodies writhing over her had her mouth not been covered by one of the serpents. She struggled against the creatures to little avail; as long as they kept moving beneath her she could not get firm footing to stand up again, and she was unable to cast any spells with her mouth covered and her neck squeezed almost to the point of choking. 

She could still see, though, and she watched as Slytherin stepped calmly out of the trees, looking down at her. 

"Lady Helga," he said gravely, "I believe that you and I need to have a discussion." 

Helga fought to twist her wand, still tightly gripped in her right hand, so that it pointed at the dark-haired man. The movement of the snakes made it practically impossible, because the more she struggled the more tightly they held her down, but she found that if she moved subtly she could very slowly change her position. 

He crouched in front of her, seemingly unconcerned about any possible retaliation. Her own arrogance had cost her the moment, but Slytherin's would cost him the battle, she decided as he regarded her suspiciously. 

"I followed you into the forest, Helga. That you knew of this place was quite clear. Tell me what became of the missing students," he said. 

He made a series of hissing noise, and the snake over her mouth slid down to her chin, just far enough for her to speak. 

"You were correct," she said, her harmless, demure mask sliding seamlessly back into place. She had to stall him; if he wised up and took both his and her wands away from her before she could aim her wand and curse him, there would be little chance of escape. 

Slytherin frowned. "Correct about what?" 

"Only the wealthy, pureblood children pose any real threat to us. The Muggleborns and the poor are irrelevant," she said. 

"They are not irrelevant," he snapped. She'd distracted him by bringing up an old argument--he, Gryffindor, and Ravenclaw really were too easy. "They do pose a threat to us by risking the exposure of the wizarding world when they return home, and..." he trailed off and his eyes widened with horror. 

"The reason that no purebloods have disappeared is that you have targeted only the poorer children. The ones that you knew would cause the least trouble if they died," he said slowly. "Helga..." 

"Your very own philosophy, Salazar," she said smugly. "I do appreciate your giving me the idea." 

"My philosophy?" he demanded. "I want only what is best for this school! That does not include the murder of innocents!" 

"Innocence is a construct of the weak," she snarled. 

He gaped at her for a moment. 

"I should have listened when William Olafson tried to tell me that you were run out of your village for dark witchcraft and suspicion of murder," he said slowly. "I did not believe him, but it would seem that my estimation of you was dangerously inaccurate." 

She raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Her hand was almost in the right position. Just a little further... 

With a short hiss from Slytherin, the snake on her chin slithered back over her mouth. She let out a muffled protest, but he ignored it. He let out a long stream of sibilant noises, and the snakes hissed back, and one of them wound its way into her pocket and coaxed Slytherin's wand out. He narrowed his eyes at her and reached down. 

She viciously bit down on the snake over her mouth. It recoiled away from her in pain, and she shouted, "Crucio!" 

Slytherin dropped, his face twisted in agony and a stream of hisses sputtering from his mouth. The snakes all around her hissed and scattered in confusion. 

She scrambled among the writhing snakes and staggered to her feet, shaking several of the reptiles off of her. 

She turned back to Slytherin to find his wand pointed directly between her eyes. 

Slytherin was stooped over, panting heavily. His eyes were wide and bloodshot, and his hands trembled. He hissed sharply and the snakes immediately formed a circle around her, rearing up and baring their fangs. Taking advantage of her momentary surprise, Slytherin reached forward and easily snatched her wand out of her hand. 

"Stupe--" he began hoarsely, but he trailed off as something behind her caught his eye. 

A sudden rush of cold despair gripped her and she gasped. A rattly breath echoed her, and she turned to see the most heavily transformed creature approaching, gliding quickly over the ground toward her. Distant memories began to replay in her mind once more. She covered her ears and closed her eyes, barely noticing as the snakes scattered once more, slithering rapidly into the forest. She stepped backwards into Slytherin. 

She barely felt when Slytherin shoved her to the ground out of his way. Dimly, over the roar of voices in her head, she heard him casting a steady stream of protective spells and curses, but the creature was undeterred. His efforts only caused the creature to focus on him as he backpedaled into the trees, and as the creature followed him away from Helga, her senses returned to her. She blinked and looked back at the creature, then dashed into the cottage. 

The cage now held three motionless bodies as well as the partially transformed girl Slytherin had identified as Rachel. Marie and the two boys all lay limp in the floor, their vacant eyes staring out at nothing. Helga noted with surprise that the cage was intact; the creature should not have been able to escape. The parchments on which the older boy had kept her records had been abandoned, and lay halfway between the bars where they had been dropped. Helga briskly walked to the cage and snatched the parchments off of the floor before backing away again. 

The ghastly thing that had once been Rachel turned to Helga and began to slowly drift toward her. It hovered alongside the bars until it reached the archway. Helga watched, scientific curiosity overriding her alarm as she folded the parchments and tucked them into the bodice of her dress. Passing through the archway should banish the creature back to where it had come from. 

It passed through the archway, and to Helga's amazement, nothing happened. The creature continued toward her, free of the cage. 

The feeling of terror and despair rose within her once more, but with this creature it was much weaker and not nearly as debilitating. She grabbed the table that held the still squirming but silent infant and shoved it between herself and the creature, then hurried back to the door. The creature paused to bend over the child, and Helga ran back outside. 

"Relashio!" a voice from her right shouted. A beam of silver light shot past her, just missing her, and she instinctively pressed close to the outside wall of the cottage and dashed around the corner away from Slytherin. 

She didn't dare peek back around the corner. Instead she scanned the ground, intent on finding something to aid her before Slytherin found her. A few palm-sized rocks were the only possibly useful things, and she picked up one in each hand. 

Though it was clear that Slytherin was trying to make a stealthy approach, the autumn leaves worked against him, crunching softly under his feet. Helga listened closely, and when she heard him step just around the corner from her she tossed one of the rocks into the underbrush away from her. There was a soft swish as Slytherin whipped his wand toward the noise, and Helga leaped around the corner with a fierce war cry and brought the other rock down swiftly against Slytherin's skull. 

Slytherin grunted and collapsed onto the ground, and the forest was silent again. 

Helga wasted no time plucking both her wand and his back out of Slytherin's grip. She listened for a moment for any sign of either of the creatures, but apparently Slytherin had lost or killed the first one and the second one was sufficiently diverted with the infant. She quickly bound him, then cast the charm to hide the cottage before levitating Slytherin and making her way back towards Hogwarts. 

She could not kill Slytherin, she knew. He was wealthy and what little family he had was quite powerful; his death would bring too much attention to Hogwarts, and with all the attention, her work would be delayed and there was a greater chance that her name would be recognized for her crimes in God's Hope. 

When she reached the tree line, she lowered Slytherin to the ground. He began to stir as a cloud drifted out from in front of the moon. Helga glanced up. 

The full moon. Of course. She nodded to herself and quickly dispelled Slytherin's bonds. 

He opened his eyes and immediately locked gazes with her. "You," he spat, before he froze at the sight of her wand pointed directly at his face. 

"Obfuscate," she said evenly. 

Slytherin blinked and looked around, clearly disoriented. "Helga? What..." 

"Confundus," she said, and with this spell his eyes glazed slightly and his face went slack. She leaned in next to him and began ripping at her own dress as she spoke. "A werewolf was loose in the forest. You were out for a walk and saw it dragging me into the forest, and you followed us to the monster's lair. Slivers of bone and scraps of clothing were all that was left of the poor students. You were able to free me and we fled, but it chased us through the forest. Fortunately, you managed to kill the beast." 

Slytherin blinked slowly. She shoved his wand back into his hand. 

She placed both hands on his shoulders and assumed her most earnest expression of concern. "Salazar! Salazar, are you all right?" 

Slytherin looked up at her with a baffled expression, blinking and shaking his head. 

"Oh my. When the werewolf jumped at you and knocked you into that tree you must have hit it harder than I thought," she said, gingerly touching the spot on his head that she had slammed the rock into. Slytherin winced and she continued, "We need to get you back to the castle." 

"Ye... yes," Slytherin said hesitantly. He narrowed his eyes and cocked his head at her. 

"I was so lucky that you were there, Salazar!" she said quickly. "Of course, I am most grateful to you for saving me from the beast." 

"Yes... yes, of course," Slytherin said, still clearly disoriented. 

She helped him stand and they walked back to the castle. She could feel his suspicious eyes on her the entire way, but with the two spells she had used he would be unable to remember anything specific enough to implicate her. She would have preferred a spell that completely erased memory, but since such a spell did not exist in any usable form, confusion spells would have to suffice. She briefly entertained the notion of suggesting the idea of improving memory charms to Ravenclaw; the woman would doubtless enjoy the opportunity to further distinguish herself. 

Once back inside, Helga summoned Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. They met at the same table over which they had argued earlier in the evening, and Slytherin haltingly repeated Helga's story, nearly word-for-word, as she added in details whenever he cast a confused look in her direction. To her amusement, Gryffindor hovered protectively over his friend even though they had fought only hours earlier. Ravenclaw stood behind Helga with one white-knuckled hand gripping her shoulder. 

"We'll need to go to the lair tomorrow and collect the remains of the students," Ravenclaw said when Helga and Slytherin finished. 

"I..." Slytherin began. "I am not sure I could find it again." 

Gryffindor blinked. "You followed Helga there, and you found your way back. For what possible reason would you be unable to find it again?" 

Slytherin shook his head helplessly, and Helga felt Ravenclaw's fingers tighten around her shoulder. 

"I find it quite interesting that a beast spirited away several Muggleborn children, but the one pureblood wizard who claims to have followed it was able to defeat it and conveniently can present no evidence to prove it even existed," Ravenclaw stated coldly. 

Slytherin's gaze snapped up to her. "What are you saying?" 

"I think Salazar bears no responsibility here, Rowena." Gryffindor began. "Also, Helga backs up what he says..." 

"He could have confunded her," Ravenclaw snapped, her other hand coming down on Helga's free shoulder protectively. 

Helga fought back a gleeful grin. This was far better than she had hoped for. 

"That is absurd," Gryffindor retorted, but Helga could see the doubt in his eyes. 

Slytherin said nothing. He only stared at Helga bearing an expression like he was trying to remember something. She gave him a small, reassuring smile, and he blinked and looked away. 

"We shall search for the remains of the students and the werewolf tomorrow," Gryffindor said. "Perhaps after a night's rest Salazar will be able to collect his thoughts." 

"Indeed," Rowena said, still eying Slytherin. 

The next day they searched the forest, but of course they found no werewolf, and no sign of the lost children. The creatures that had emerged from the archway had to be somewhere in the forest still, but there was no trace of their existence. 

Slytherin kept both a close eye on her and a healthy distance from her that day and many after. While she knew that his sense of unease was justified, it only served to cause Ravenclaw to suspect him more, and she knew that Gryffindor already had seeds of doubt in his mind as well. 

Neither of them questioned her. 

She read over her notes by night, trying to determine what had happened. There were many spells to create portals, and she wondered if they were all the same. Further investigation was required, and she was determined to continue her work. She would simply have to find another source for test subjects now that the culprit had allegedly been killed. 

She could take more students, but while she liked the fact that Slytherin was under suspicion, further disappearances would increase the likelihood of action being taken against him. If that happened, there would be no one diverting attention away from the real cause. 

Of course, once the disappearances stopped, there was nothing to divert attention from Slytherin's insistence that only pureblooded wizard children should be permitted to attend Hogwarts. His enthusiasm for the idea had increased, but he couldn't seem to articulate why, much to Helga's amusement. 

As long as everyone was watching Slytherin, she would easily be able to sneak away. Slytherin, however, would probably not be able to follow her again without alarming his fellow teachers. 

She smiled to herself and began to plan. 


End file.
